Tracker and comPADRE

Have you developed a great Tracker experiment that works well in your class?
Why not share it with other physics teachers by adding it to the comPADRE Tracker collection?

Tracker is part of the Open Source Physics (OSP) Collection hosted by the comPADRE Digital Library, a network of educational resource collections supporting teachers and students in Physics and Astronomy. As a comPADRE user you may explore collections designed to meet your specific needs and help build the network by adding resources, commenting on resources, and starting or joining discussions.

Click here to see a list of current Tracker resources on comPADRE. Note that most of these are Tracker experiments contributed by teachers like you! If you've developed a Tracker experiment that you have successfully classroom tested, then please consider sharing it with the comPADRE community. Note: with rare exceptions, your zipped Tracker experiment (video and documents) should not exceed 10MB.

Here's how to add your own Tracker experiment to comPADRE:

Prepare your supporting documents (instructions, report forms, etc).

Convert all documents to PDF or HTML.

PDF documents will always be displayed in a separate PDF viewer.

HTML documents may be displayed in a web browser or in Tracker itself. To display in Tracker, open the experiment's TRK file, add the HTML document to a Page View and save the changes.

Open your experiment's TRK file and choose File|Export|Tracker ZIP... to open the Export Tracker ZIP dialog.

In the HTML Documentation section, enter the name, description and keywords for the experiment, and list the authors and their contact information.

In the Video section, check the box Trim to Clip and select a video format. The format JPEG Images is often a good choice since it doesn't require a video engine.

In the Thumbnail section, review and/or change the setting if desired.

Click the Add Files button and add your supporting PDF and HTML documents (unless they are displayed in a Tracker Page View--those will be included automatically).

Click the Save As button to create the ZIP file. It will be given the extension .trz so it can be opened in Tracker with just a double-click, but you can safely change the extension to .zip if you prefer.

Check that your Tracker ZIP file is 10MB or less. If not, review your experiment to see if you can reduce the number of frames in your video clip (for example, by increasing the step size). You may also wish to experiment with different video formats when exporting the Tracker ZIP file.

Verify that your experiment loads correctly when you open the ZIP file in Tracker (you do not need to unzip the file). Supporting PDF and/or HTML documents should open in separate applications on the desktop.

Log into comPADRE (registration is free) and open the Suggest a Resource page. Unless you have instructor materials or other ancillary resources, simply enter the information in the Quick Suggestion tab, attach your Tracker ZIP file, and click the Make Suggestion button. That's it! The OSP Collection editor will review your submission and, if accepted, create the full record for the experiment.

If you wish to include additional resources along with your ZIP file, use the Full Suggestion Wizard tab on the Suggest a Resource page.